Encouraging kids to develop virtues with a little help from the Community of Saints

Friday, January 8, 2016

January 8: St. Thorfinn

History

Bishop Thorfinn lived in Norway in the 13th century. For a while, there was an agreement between. When King Eric came into power, he wasn’t fond of the Church. Eventually, the king outlawed the bishops! Bishop Thorfinn had to escape, and then he got sick and died. Almost everybody forgot about him. But 50 years later, Bishop Thorfinn’s tomb was opened, and instead of the smell of death, there was a nice odor. A poem written by a monk on a piece of parchment hung over the bishop’s body, and it looked just as new as the day it had been placed there. So the monk who had written it was found and asked what kind of a man Bishop Thorfinn had been. Then people kept his memory alive.

Activity

Do you ever feel like you’re so unimportant, everybody will forget about you? Everybody wants to feel like they are important. Saint Thorfinn knew he was important to God, even if the king didn’t like him, and even if he didn’t do anything special enough for people to remember. Today, pray that God will help you remember that He will never forget you, even if everybody else does.